


July Flash Fiction

by Queerily_kai



Category: Original Work
Genre: 300 words, Alternate Universe - Future, Daily Prompts, Flash Fiction, Gen, Shape Shifters, Time Travel, human animal hybrids, mission, my own characters - Freeform, parker and riley, travelers and watchers, writing challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25025311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queerily_kai/pseuds/Queerily_kai
Summary: 30 days of prompts, 300 word limit on each.Prompts will revolve around my OC's Parker and Riley, both time traveling shapeshifters, as they recall past missions across the universe.Chapter title is the prompt.(Edit- I barely made it to day 11, and then completely lost all motivation to continue with this. so 11 days of prompts around what ended up being 3 OC's)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. The House Was Like Nothing She Had Ever Seen Before

“Hey Parker!” Riley called out, as they rushed out of their commanders office. “I got our next assignment! We get to go to earth again!” 

“And you're excited about that? Everyone I know who has been there says its shit. Over crowded, smog, processed food.” 

“Well, it's only for 30 days this time, we just have to keep an eye on another traveler and make sure they dont mess up the continuum. Basically babysitting,” Riley explained excitedly, handing over his character assignment. “Transport leaves in one hour.”

The morphed into Mr. and Mrs. Smith, dressed as was common for the era they were headed. “Why do I always have to be the woman,” Parker complained as they stepped onto the transport pad, “I’m so sick of heels.” 

They found themselves in an empty room with smooth metal walls, looking around confused. The scotty running the transport was supposed to drop them into their assigned home, but this just looked like a box. 

“Welcome, new residents,” a female voice greeted as a wall lit up with a projection of a 1950’s housewife. “This house is fully automated, and the most advanced of our time. To choose which room you would like to use, simply speak its name.” 

A list of commands came up o the screen and Riley began trying them out, watching in amazement as a couch and chair slid from a trap door in the wall when he said living room, and a bed when he said ‘bedroom’ and so on, while Parker stood in the middle watching with wide eyes. 

“Is there a problem, Mrs. Smith?” The house asked. 

“No, no, of course not!” Parker replied, “I’ve just never seen anything like this before.” 

“Hey Parker!” Riley called, “Look how high up we are! Practically in the clouds!”


	2. We're Going To have to find a Locksmith

Riley and Parker were bored on their second day on Earth, no longer amused by their smarthouse. Parker was sprawled on the couch with their head hanging upside down over the edge while Riley cycled through the options on their window wall, deciding between the 1978 rainforest theme (from when the forests were still thriving) or the Saturn view, complete with rings to make it look like they were on the planet. It was more entertaining than TV. 

They had quickly learned that in 2250, going outside required protective clothing to withstand the suns UV rays and polluted air, and most people stayed inside, getting deliveries by drone and traveling through underground tunnels. 

“I want to be a cat again someday,” Parker said, reaching to pick up the tracker device to check on their traveller. He hadn’t left his apartment down the hall. “Remember when I was a fancy show cat you were my handler? I liked that mission.” 

“The one where you got stuck in a box for seven hours and we had to cut it apart to get you out? You enjoyed that mission?” Riley asked, setting the display to rainforest and putting down the controller. 

“I got to be in a box. While I was a cat. It was cozy,” Parker shrugged. Sometimes when they morphed into animals they acquired animalistic traits. Riley was once a dog, and was too distracted by sticks and tennis balls to be useful for most of the mission. 

“That poor show manager, running around panicked, trying to get you out. ‘We need to call a locksmith!’ He kept yelling. ‘There's a cat in danger! Someone call a locksmith!’’ Riley imitated. 

“Huh, I must have slept through all that,” Parker shrugged. 

“Well, you were a cat, so I guess it's not surprising.”


	3. The Fate of the Telegraph Worker

“Why would you travel to the future and then visit a museum exhibit about the past?” Riley questioned, crossing their arms and leaning against the wall with a huff. “You're a time traveler, just go to the past and see it first hand!” 

Parker sighed and glared in Riley’s direction. “It’s not our job to understand why travellers go where they go,” they reminded. “We just have to make sure they don’t fuck shit up.”

“Still weird though,” Riley groaned. Their traveller had decided to visit several museums that day, viewing exhibits on the 19th and 20th centuries. Exhibits that they had travelled to 2250 to see. 

It was the fourth Museum they had trailed the traveller through, and they were bored with hanging back in the shadows.  
“The Fate of the Telegraph Operator,” Parker read, stepping forward a few feet to read the display the traveller was looking at. “That sounds dramatic.” 

The display contained a comical explanation of how electrical currents used to travel through wires, and how a telegraph was a machine that sent coded messages through the wires using clicks that would be translated by the operators. Their fate, as it turned out, was a career change when the technology advanced to the telephone. Parker thought it was a bit of a let down after the headline. 

“You two are my watchers, right?” 

Parker startled, and turned to find their traveller standing right next to them. 

“Yes, we are, sorry,” Parker stuttered. “Most people don’t talk to us.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize, is this not okay?” he asked. 

“It’s totally fine,” Riley said, stepping forward. “Is there a problem?”

“Oh no, I just wanted to tell you that I’m a historian. I love to see how accurately the future gets this era,” the traveler said, grinning.


	4. A Light Tent, and Actress, Two Worlds

The following day found Riley, Parker, and the traveler in the basement of the public records office, while the traveller searched for his future great-great-grandchildren. 

“Aren’t you worried about finding out something bad about them?” Riley asked, “What if someone died in a terrible accident, or was an awful person? Wouldn’t you be happier not knowing?”

“Perhaps, but then I would miss out on finding out about the good things. The possibility of bad things happening to the people we love is part of the risk we take when we become parents.”

After their brief chat in the museum the day before, the dynamic had changed between the three, even though interaction was generally frowned upon. The traveller had told them that he used to travel the world with his wife, and after her passing the shift to traveling alone had been difficult. He had asked if they could spend the rest of the month exploring the city together, and the watchers agreed. 

“Just don’t tell our boss, please,” Riley asked. “Technically it's not against the rules, but I dont want to have to sit through another lecture on proper behavior and our companies expectations.”   
“No problem,” The traveller had agreed.

He projected a photo onto the wall of his great-great- granddaughters wedding, smiling. 

“She looks just like my Sofie did,” He said. “She was an actress, living her dream on broadway and I was a poor maintenance man. We were from two different worlds, and everyone said it would never work. I knew they were all wrong though, and that moment when I first saw her, dressed in white under the glow of thousands of tiny lights that decorated the tent, was the best moment of my life. I got close to sixty years with her before she passed.”


	5. A Hungry Ghost, a Holiday, Ice Cream

“Do you think ghosts get hungry?” Riley asked, frowning at his growling belly while they waited for their food. They were sitting in a cramped diner, next to one of the train stations in the underground tunnel network, waiting for pancakes and bacon. They had been hesitant when they saw the place, but reviewers insisted they served the best breakfast in the city. The plan for the day was a lecture on Ghost’s in the Cinema followed by a movie marathon in honor of National Paranormal Day. 

“I saw a ghost eat ice cream once,” The traveller said. They had learned that his name was Abraham and he was 97 years old. “Or at least I thought it was a ghost at the time. I saw the freezer door open by itself, and then the carton and the spoon floated in the air as a bite was scooped out. And then the spoon with the ice cream just floated up to where I imagined a mouth would be, and the ice cream disappeared!” 

“Did you see, like, a waterfall of melting ice cream dripping down where the throat would be, that then, like, collected into a floating pool, and then the ghost would be like…” Parker asked, beginning to ramble. She stopped talking when Riley kicked her ankle under the table, glaring. 

“Too far?”

“A little bit, yeah,” Riley nodded. 

“The ice cream disappeared,” Abraham said again.   
Parker looked disappointed. 

“Was it a ghost?” Riley asked. 

“Nope. Invisibility suit,” Abraham answered. “It was the Bed and Breakfast owner eating ice cream in an invisibility suit.”

“Those were real?” Riley asked. 

“Breifly, but they quietly disappeared after a few months. Too many lawsuits over privacy.” 

“That seems easily predictable,” Parker stated. “Why weren’t they stopped?”

“They were profitable, like everything terrible.”


	6. A Glass House, A Romance Between and Entomologist and a Doctor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I ran out of words to explain in the chapter, but an Entomologist studies insects.

“How about this?” Riley said, holding up a t-shirt for Abraham. It read “Grampa went to the future and all I got was this dumb shirt”. 

Abraham raised an eyebrow, and shook his head, prompting Riley to return the shirt with a sigh. They had been in the mall for hours searching for gifts for him to bring back to his family, and it was getting difficult to find things he could legally bring back. 

Parker yawned, eyeing a coffee shop across the hall. “Can we take a break from this and get some coffee. My caffeine levels are dropping quickly and you know how grumpy that makes me.” 

They sat at a small table, people watching as they waited for their drinks. 

A man in medical scrubs was sitting nervously in the corner with a small glass box in front of him. It was difficult to see from their angle, but it appeared to be in the shape of a 20th century house with a triangular roof. There was something small inside the man kept peering at, dropping his head so his cheek nearly touched the table as he looked. 

“Fancy seeing you here, doctor,” a man said, stepping up to the table in a tweed coat.

The doctor swallowed nervously, and then quickly slid out of his chair to get down on one knee, holding out the glass box. “Will you marry me?” he asked, looking up at the other man. 

“Is that.. How did you find this… and it's alive!” The man in tweed eclamined, carefully taking the glass box in his hands. 

“Euspinolia militaris, the panda ant,” The doctor said. “Took me months to track down. And you haven't answered my question.”

The man in tweed looked up in shock, “yes! Of course I’ll marry you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Panda ants are a real thing! And they are super rare, and super adorable!


	7. "The Color of Her Blood was the Least of My Worries"

“I think you're bleeding, Parker,” Riley said, sounding vaguely concerned as he looked at her leg. A dark turquoise stain was forming just below her knee, and she realized that she must have caught a sharp edge of something when she tripped up the stairs a few minutes earlier. 

“Ugh, I am,” She groaned, pulling up her pant leg to examine the wound. “I’m gonna shift so I can heal this faster.” She quickly stripped naked and sat on the floor, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. Moments later, her skin had a greenish hue with patches of iridescent scales around the edges of her face and on her forearms, and her eyes glowed yellow.”

“I think this is yours, must have gotten mixed into my things,” Abraham said, distracted as he entered the apartment with a shopping bag. He froze, spotting Parker and stared wide eyed. 

Riley moved quickly, explaining that her blood was supposed to be that color, and ushered him out of the apartment. 

“The color of her blood was the least of my concerns,” Abraham said once he and Riley were in his apartment. “She has scales. And yellow eyes. And I’m guessing I wasn’t supposed to see that.”

“No, you weren’t,” Riley sighed. “We’re both human hybrids, mixed with lizard and octopus DNA. They call it genetic customization. We can heal quickly and regenerate limbs in our natural forms, and shift our appearances to resemble other humanoids.”

Abraham nodded, struggling to wrap his brain around what Riley was telling him. 

“We were also born on a planet that earth scientists won't discover until 2832, and I've probably already told you too much.” Riley continued. 

“Our secret then,” Abraham replied. “And are you… the same?”

“Yeah, except my skin is more blue than green,” Riley answered.


	8. A Single Lily, A Cliff, 3 Hours

Like most flowers, the lily was very close to extinction. The few that did still bloom around the world were fiercely protected, and the majority were popular tourist attractions. Protective glass domes with precise environmental controls were set up around them, and viewers would line up to peer through the glass. 

It took two hours to reach the nature preserve by high speed train, followed by a three hour wait for the gondola up to the cliff. They were far enough from any cities that the air was breathable without a mask, but the suns UV rays were still strong enough that prolonged exposure was dangerous, and the line formed under a canopy along the cliff walls. Even the lily was hiding, growing under a ledge that provided shade the majority of the day. 

“This better be one amazing lily,” Riley complained as they crept about a foot forward in line, two and a half hours into their wait. Parker started to open her mouth to agree, when she noticed the sad look on Abraham’s face, and elbowed him to shut up. 

“My mother's name was Lily, and it was her favorite flower,” Abraham said softly as he wiped his eyes. “They grew everywhere around the house, in all colors. The orange ones along the driveway were always my favorites. “

Parker took a step closer and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling when Abraham leaned in slightly to the touch. Abraham was quiet for the rest of the journey to the top, and Parker stayed close by. Abraham had mentioned earlier that day that she reminded him of his daughter, and found her presence comforting. 

“It's been decades since I’ve seen her, but to this day, everytime i look at a Lily, Its like I just hugged her yesterday.”


	9. A Party in an Underwater World, A Duel

“Exciting news, everyone!” Abraham exclaimed as they gathered in the lobby. They were going on an architectural tour that day, and were waiting for their guide. 

“The itinerary doesn’t include six churches anymore?” Riley asked hopefully. 

“It’s actually seven now,” Abraham answered. “But that’s not the news. We’ve been invited to a dinner party next week, with a murder mystery theme!” 

“Awesome! We haven't been to a good party in years,” Riley exclaimed. 

“And who’s fault is that?” Parker asked. 

“Mine,” Riley sighed. “I didn’t realize it was a swordfish hybrid! I thought it was just some drunk asshole trying to start a fight!”  
“Uh huh, I remember. You are still the one who picked up a serving fork and lunged at him, invoking a duel. I believe you yelled ‘En Garde!’”

“That is true.” 

“I know I’m not supposed to know, but swordfish Hybrid?” Abraham asked. “Did he have a long pointy nose?”

“Not exactly, the swordfish genes are a self defense option, and the sword part has been re-engineered to retract into the forearm. It's not a popular one though because the swords tend to engage too easily when the person is uncomfortable.” Riley explained. “This guy had some serious social anxiety, and had poked my leg when he accidentally engaged.” 

“We’re lucky the party was underwater on Calisto, and that he can’t swim very fast. Security threw him out before anyone realized what was happening. Shark hybrids move scary fast underwater,” Parker said. 

“My parents chose the amphibious gene so I can breath underwater, but they didn’t spring for any of the fin or webbed feet upgrades.” 

Abraham stared as Parker and Riley told the story, wanting to ask a million questions.

“Oh look, our ride is here,” Abraham interrupted, sounding relieved as he left the lobby.


	10. Evesdropping Had Become a Habit That Winter

“Do you think we should check on him?” Parker asked, looking at the tracker showing where Abraham was. The blue dot showed him in his apartment, and it hadn’t moved since early that morning when he presumably crossed the apartment to use the bathroom and then back to bed. 

“He’s taking a day off to rest, like he said last night,” Riley reminded. “Last night you were worried about how tired he looked, and now your worried about him taking a break. Now put that thing down and help me figure out how to make breakfast.” 

The wall panel in the kitchen was opened up, revealing an appliance labeled as a ‘Food -O-Matic’. They had seen the ads promoting ‘Global Gourmet at your Fingertips’, showing decadent plates of food materializing, but none of them had any indication on how to make said food. 

Parker began poking at various parts of the machine, and a menu finally appeared that allowed them to select “20th century farm breakfast” and settled down to heaping servings of eggs, bacon and toast. 

“I think I should go check on him, just listen at the door to make sure he’s alive,” Parker said as she finished eating. “He’s 97. What if he’s dead?”

“Human life expectancy for his time is 126 years.”

Parker wanted to use her enhanced hearing to make sure there was a heartbeat. Riley would call it an invasion of priacy though and that was only allowed in special situations. 

Situations like the traveller they had been assigned to for a full winter who had made them on day one and kept trying to remove his tracker device that was embedded into his arm. Evesdropping had become a habit that winter, as it was the only way they could do their jobs properly.


	11. The Garden Shrank at Night

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Riley asked, looking around. They had been in the park earlier in the day, walking under the canopies on their way to dinner when Parker noticed an advertisement for a Holo Tour Of The Universe, featuring Holographic animations of the local solar systems. A throwback to the Planetariums of the 20th century! Abraham began to smile wistfully, talking about the planetarium he would visit with Sophie, and Parker saved the details into her phone. 

“This is the exact spot I was standing in when I saved our location, in the center circle of the garden surrounded by silk roses,” Parker replied sounding annoyed. “So either something is wrong with my GPS, or someone moved the garden.” 

“We are early, so It’s possible we are the first to arrive,” Abraham said. “I also remember that building, and that sculpture from this afternoon, so we will stay and wait.” He spoke with an air of authority that had Riley and Parker easily agreeing. 

A few more small groups arrived, milling around and seeming equally confused. Eventually, a man came rushing over carrying a large case, and set it down in the center of the pathway. He pulled out a tripod and projector, and called everyone over to begin’

“I have a question!” Riley interrupted. 

“I normally don’t take questions until the end, but okay,” The presenter said sighing.

“Where's the garden?”

“The garden?” The presenter asked. 

“Big round one, full of fake roses. It was right where we are standing earlier today.” 

“Oh, right! That garden,” He said, looking. “The grounds crew shrink it down and put it into storage at night so I have space for my show.” 

“Oh, thats a good idea.” Riley said nodding. “Thanks, that was going to bother me.”


End file.
